About the research project

Transatlantic Ties is an original political science research project in the field of transatlantic relations. Conducted between 2015 and 2018, it explores how the federal states in the United States of America (U.S.) represent their transatlantic trade interests in the European Union (EU). Against the backdrop of the negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the research highlights why U.S. states use different connections and access points, both at home and in Europe, to make their voices heard on transatlantic trade policy – and why some states are more active than others.

This website offers open access to the full study, presents a summary and highlights selected findings.

What?

The research focuses on identifying and analyzing the ways in which U.S. states represent their transatlantic trade interests. Within the U.S. federal system and through direct European links, U.S. state executives and legislatures are involved in transatlantic relations. The key questions are to find out why some U.S. states become active in transatlantic trade policy, what avenues they pursue to voice their opinions and how this relates to the federal government’s position.

Why?

U.S. states are economically and politically potent actors, whose efforts in trade promotion have been studied. However, we have little knowledge on state actors’ engagement in trade policy, even though there are potential conflicts with the federal government as well as tensions between the principles of federalism and free markets. To improve the understanding of policy issues at all governmental levels, this research project provides an analysis of U.S. states’ transatlantic ties.

How?

Using existing literature from the fields of federalism studies, international political economy and multi-layered diplomacy, the study combines archival sources with explorative qualitative interviews. These interviews were conducted in the U.S. and Europe with a range of political decision-makers and other stakeholders to provide expertise on the involvement of the U.S. states in the TTIP negotiations as a contemporary case for transatlantic relations.

Journal article in Regional & Federal Studies

An article that covers some of the research and findings from the research project was published in the journal Regional & Federal Studies in April 2021 (online). The final accepted manuscript after peer review can be downloaded here: “Regional mobilization in international trade policy: The US states in transatlantic trade negotiations”.

The version of record of this manuscript is available on the journal’s page (DOI: 10.1080/13597566.2021.1918386).

About the author

My name is Julian Jaursch and completed my PhD at the Free University Berlin, with a research stay at Columbia University. Christian Lammert, professor at the Free University’s John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies, and Justin H. Phillips, professor at Columbia, were my primary and secondary advisors, respectively.

I received my M.A. degree in Political Science after completing the TransAtlantic Masters (TAM) program. TAM is a graduate program on transatlantic relations and European studies, which is jointly conducted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and various European universities, allowing me to study not only at UNC but also Humboldt University and Free University Berlin.

Besides my PhD, I worked at a political consultancy and at not-for-profit organizations in Germany’s capital. Currently, I’m a project director at SNV, a not-for-profit tech policy think tank in Berlin. You can reach me at (PGP key).

Some of my other research

In the field of EU studies and international relations, these are some of my other scientific publications:

2014: Let’s Agree to Agree: Regional Interest Representation in the Negotiations for the 2007-13 and 2014-20 Structural Funds in Germany. Regional & Federal Studies, Volume 24, Issue 2, pp. 189-208.
2012: Regional interest representation in the EU: A qualitative intra-national comparison among German states. Masters thesis (under the direction of Liesbet Hooghe). The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
2012: Telling the Greek Story of Europe and the Bull Trap: How U.S. Correspondents Attribute News Value to a Topic-Oriented Country’s Status Within the Eurozone’s Debt Crisis. With Oliver Hahn. Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies, Volume 1, Number 1, pp. 97-113.